Frank James, 61, stole the items within minutes of each other from two different stores.

Officers were called to Lonestar Truck Group on Jacksboro Highway shortly before 11 a.m. When they arrived, they said they were waved down by an employee who told them he had seen a man, later identified as James, leave the employee-only section of the business. The business then realized a laptop was missing.

The employee told police he followed James and saw him walking towards Dollar General with a rectangle-shaped item on his back.

Officers went to the Dollar General and the store provided surveillance footage of James entering the store with what appeared to be a laptop in the back of his pants. Video also showed James cutting a cell phone box free from an electronics rack at Dollar General and opening the box.

Police approached James and arrested him. Video showed James tried to hide the cell phone box when officers walked up to him. Officers located the missing laptop on James' person. The laptop was valued at $1,200 and the cell phone at $84.

Because a records check showed James had five previous theft convictions, he was charged with two counts of Theft with Two or More Previous Convictions, a state felony.